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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. snap — to click
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. content — the amount
  6. spell — letters
  7. degree — from a university
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. content — happy
  10. spell — magic
  11. spell — a short time
  12. swing — to play on
  13. mine — for digging
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. swing — music
  16. degree — temperature
  17. swing — in golf
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. ground — crushed
  20. ground — the earth
  21. ground — a position
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. snap — to snap out of it

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com